The present invention relates to a rail for a conveyor for transporting goods hanging on hangers. The conveyor travels, guided, in a channel in the rail with the tips of the hanger hooks supported on the conveyor. The channel is recessed into the surface of the rail that faces the hanger hook, and the channel opens upward toward the exterior of the rail.
Particularly in the clothing industry, conveyors are used in which the goods to be conveyed hang on hangers, which may be ordinary clothes hangers. These hangers are placed onto the conveyor.
German 39 29 158 C2 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,262), which exemplifies this type, discloses a conveyor for transporting goods hanging on hangers. In this conveyor, which can be used both as a storage conveyor and as an oblique conveyor, the pulling means circulating in the direction of transport grips the hooks of the hangers at their tips, the tips being spaced laterally from the hangers' center of gravity, in order to transport them. The tip of the hanger hook therefore lies on the pulling means. The advantage of transporting the hanger hook at its tip is that the loading and delivery areas, where the hangers are loaded onto the conveyor and unloaded from the conveyor, can be arranged parallel to the conveyor. In this way, there are no undesired forces or obstructions which interfere with movement of the hangers, such as might exist if the hanger were required to change direction at the loading and delivery areas.
In this prior conveyor, the pulling means is developed as a toothed conveyor belt, which circulates along a path which defines a vertical plane. Therefore, it requires a substantial amount of space in the vertical direction to accommodate the movement of the toothed belt around its sprocket wheels. A conveyor path formed with a toothed belt must be substantially linear, since a toothed belt can be made to follow a curved course only with difficulty, if at all. Further, since the base body which serves as a rail in this prior conveyor performs only a supporting function with respect to the conveyor belt, fluttering of the belt can occur, particularly when the conveyor line is of substantial length, thus producing undesired noise.
German 39 29 156 A1 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,082,107) discloses a hanging conveyor in which the primary pulling means is a horizontally revolving roller chain. This roller chain is guided in a chain channel arranged in a rail. In this case, however, the hanger hook cannot be transported at its tip and the hanger must be hung in a conventional manner on the chain. As a result, with this prior conveyor, linear feeding and delivery, at loading and unloading zones arranged parallel to the conveyor, are not possible. Therefore, this prior conveyor must provide an auxiliary toothed-belt conveyor to assist with delivery of the hangers from the roller chain.
The disclosures of all prior art materials referred to herein are expressly incorporated by reference.